Hammond v. Renaissance Entertainment Productions

Nature of the Order

This is a stipulated confidentiality agreement and protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). The parties, through counsel, requested protection for nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed during discovery. The court found good cause for an appropriately tailored order and entered it.

Protected Information and Permitted Disclosure

The order allows a producing party to designate as confidential only material it reasonably and in good faith believes includes previously undisclosed financial information; information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company; business, product-development, or marketing plans; personal or intimate information about an individual; or another category the court later protects. Confidential material may be disclosed only to specified recipients, including the parties, counsel, insurers and their counsel, litigation-support vendors, certain mediators or arbitrators, document recipients, potential witnesses, experts and advisers, deposition stenographers, and the court. Some recipients must first sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Confidential discovery material may be used only to prosecute or defend this case and any appeals, not for business, commercial, competitive, or unrelated litigation purposes. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privilege, or other protections, and it does not decide whether evidence will be admissible at trial.

Sealing and Challenges

A party filing material under seal must also publicly file a redacted version and provide the materials required by the court’s Individual Practices. The order states that the court may unseal documents if the required specific findings supporting continued sealing cannot be made, and that confidential treatment is unlikely for material introduced as evidence at trial. Parties may challenge confidentiality designations or request additional disclosure limits, such as attorneys’-eyes-only treatment, and must present unresolved disputes to the court under its Individual Practices.

Privilege and Case Conclusion

If privileged or attorney-work-product material is accidentally disclosed, the disclosure does not waive the protection. The receiving party must return or destroy the material within five business days after notice and provide counsel’s certification. The producing party must then provide a privilege log, and the receiving party may ask the court to compel production without relying on the inadvertent disclosure as a ground.

Within 60 days after final disposition of the action, including appeals, recipients must return or, with the producing party’s permission, destroy confidential material and certify that they retained no copies or summaries. Counsel specifically retained for the action may keep archival copies of certain case materials, but those copies remain subject to the order. The order survives termination of the litigation, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce it and impose contempt sanctions.

Disposition

The court entered the stipulated protective order. This order concerns discovery confidentiality and does not decide the underlying claims or defenses.